2018 Long Beach State of the City Address

Sun'll. Come out, tomorrow. Bet. Your bottom dollar. That tomorrow. Oh they'll. Be son. Just. Thinking. About tomorrow. Clears. Away the cobwebs, and. The sorrow. Til. There's none. When. I'm stuck with a day that's. Gray. I. Just, stick out my chin. Tomorrow. So. You gotta hang, on, till tomorrow. Please. Stand, for the Pledge of Allegiance by, the campfire boys and girls of Long Beach. No. Ladies. And gentlemen please welcome vice. Mayor Rex, Richardson. What. An amazing. Performance of, tomorrow, by Sierra, today Oh another. Year. Of phenomenal. Vocalists, of Music Theatre West let's hear for Sierra one more time. This. Is indeed a special night and the. Energy here at the Terrace theater is palpable, umbrellas. Raincoats. The, long beach community really showed up tonight. Give. Yourselves around applause uptown, Downtown. East and West if. You're in the house give yourselves a round of applause. Welcome. Once again to, Mayor. Robert Garcia's, fourth annual state, of the city. As. Your vice mayor I'm distinctly, honored tonight to welcome you your, presence, once, again is a testament, to civic engagement and, what makes our city truly, special and, speaking. Of of honored, and special, we have a number of special. Guests elected, and community, members here with us this evening it's a full house so I ask, that you hold your applause until the, introduction. Is concluded, first. We're joined by the Honorable long beach city council Councilwoman. Lena Gonzales, councilmember. Janine Pierce, councilmember. Suzie price councilmember. Darryl super Na councilmember. Stacey Mungo. Councilmember. Dee Andrews. Councilmember. Roberto, or Unga councilmember. Eighth district, councilmember I lost and give these council members around applause. Next. We have our citywide. Officials with, the city auditor lowered out City, Prosecutor, Doug Albert city, attorney Charles parking and city manager, Patrick Wessels. Here for our citywide officials.

Next. From the County of Los Angeles we, have supervisor, Janice, Hahn and County Assessor Jeffrey, praying was here for the county Los Angeles, our. Partnership, with the education, institutions, are second to none we, have our educational. Leaders with us tonight we have superintendent, Chris Steinhauser we. Have long beach city college college, president, reagan Romilly, Long, Beach Unified School, District Board President, Megan Kerr vice. President, Diana Craig head board, member Felton Williams, board, member John McGinnis, board. Member John Mayer we, have Long Beach City College trustee. President Jeff Kellogg vice, president, Sonny Zia trustee. Doug Otto trustee. Vivian, mala Alou let's, give these leaders, a round, of applause. And, tonight, we have a special guest former Long Beach mayor Beverly. O'Neill please, give mayor on neela round of applause I. Want. To thank all of you for being here in supporting, our city over. The years Long Beach has benefited. From tremendous, community partnerships, these. Partnerships not only help to make tonight's event possible, but, they, help our help, contribute every day to the city of Long Beach and helped us thrive please, join me in thanking the Port of Long Beach the. Long Beach water department, Long Beach transit, in the Long Beach Public Library, Foundation I. Would. Also like to thank our good friends, at the convention, and entertainment. Center for opening, their doors for a fourth year that's, Charlie, Byrne and his excellent, team they've, made all of us and everyone who visits this great Complex feel welcome let's, hear it for the hard-working women and men of the Long Beach Convention Center. And. Finally. Of course the, one and only second. To none the one and only Steve, Goodling. President, and CEO of the Long Beach Convention and entertainment, Bureau, his work and his, staff helped, make tonight's event in every vent. Fantastic. And attract long track visitors in Long Beach every year so let's hear it for Steve in the CVB. Here. In Long Beach there. Is a broad, sense, of pride and community. And commitment. To making one's community better, it. Makes our city special, it. Surrounds, us it binds. Us together as a community no. I'm not talking about the force. What. I'm talking about is community. Spirit a community. Is not made up of statistics. Or roads. Or buildings. A community is made up of people the. Thriving, and an indomitable spirit, of, people and, I can think of no other leader, who, embodies, the spirit of, Long Beach than. Mayor Robert Garcia. It's. Tough to believe that, nearly four years have passed since mayor garcia took office joining. A new long beach city council majority and so many. Amazing things have taken place in our city we've. Worked together to make our city smarter, safer. And more. Responsive, to the needs of our communities, every neighborhood, no matter where you live or your socioeconomic status. Having. Worked alongside of his vice mayor I can tell you that Mayor Garcia, is a true leader an educator. A motivator. And a, comic book movie commentator. He.

Inspires, All of us to strive for the very best of our city I'm looking, forward to hearing his address. Tonight I know you are as well so thank you for being here tonight and go Long Beach. Something. Has changed within. Me. Something. Is not, the same. I'm. Through, it's playing, by, the. Rules of. Someone. Else's, game. Too. Late for. Second-guessing. Too. Late to go back to. Sleep. It's. Time, to trust. My. Instincts. Close. My. Eyes. And. Leap. It's. Time to try, defying. Gravity. I. Think. I'll try, to find. Crash, with you and, you can't call me. I'm, through, accepting limits. Cuz. Someone says, there so. Some. Things I, cannot change, but. Til I try. I'll never know. Too. Long I've been afraid. Of losing love, I. Guess I the lost. Well, if that's love. It comes that much too high a car. Us I'd, sooner, by. Young. Gravity. Kissing. Me goodbye. I'm. Defying. Gravity. And, you can't pull, me, down. It's, head. Our. Future, is unlimited. And. I just had a vision almost, like, a prophecy. I. Know. It. Sounds, truly crazy, and. True. The, visions hazy. But. I swear someday. I'll be. Flying. Ah, kiss. Me. They'll. Never bring, us down. To. The western, sky, as. Someone, told me, lately. Everyone. Deserves. A, chance to, fly and, if, I'm flying, solo, at. Least on fly injury. To. Those who, ground, me take a message, back from, me. Tell, them how, I. Am defying. Gravity. Gravity. And, soon I'll match them in Reno. And. Nobody. In. All of Oz. No. Wizard, that. There is or. Was is. Ever, gonna. Bring. Ladies. And gentlemen please welcome Mayor. Robert Garcia. Thank. You. Thank. You. Thank. You thank you all for being here tonight it's. A great audience the great night I just want to thank every single person for. Being yet out here in loving your city. Now. In my first state of the city and throughout. 2015, I asked. You to judge my performance, by, the number of construction, cranes in the air and the hard hats on our streets today. There, are seven tower cranes across our skyline, three. Billion dollars, of development under, construction, and more, than 3500. Units of housing have, been either completed, or approved. We're, building, absolutely. We. Are building the largest bridge, project, on the west coast, modernizing. The Metro blue line building. New hotels and investing. Millions to. Expand, the aquarium, and modernize, our Convention Center we, have a new downtown library and, Civic Center under construction, hundreds. Of new affordable units, for, seniors and for working families. Absolutely. And and. Our. Colleges and schools are getting major upgrades, and major, new buildings, we're, also building significant, new projects, at Queen, Mary Island, Douglass park and finally.

After Years, of work at second, and PCH. And thanks. To measure a we. Have started, the largest, public infrastructure, plan in a. Generation. Fixing. And paving hundreds. Of miles of streets sidewalks. Critical. Buildings as well of our parks, CUC. Long, Beach is under. Construction and. Tonight. I want, to thank the men and women, of the construction, unions and trades that, are literally building a better Long Beach every. Single. Day. As mayor. I supported. A citywide project, labor agreement, for both our city and our, port because. Construction. Construction. Is not only progress. It. Also represents, good jobs fair. Wages and, health, care for hard-working people who, are trying to get by to support their families and tonight. Tonight. I want to thank the, women and men who are building our city they, put their sweat into every, project you see in our community, our local Labor's our carpenters. Our steel, workers our electricians. Our, pipe trade workers our iron workers plumbers, steamfitters. Painters. And Operating. Engineers you. All make America. And our community, truly great thank, you very much. And thanks. To your labor I can, announce tonight that the state of our city is strong, and getting, stronger now, I have invited tonight the leadership, of our Building and Construction Trades they're, here, I want, them to stand up and let's give them a big round of applause for building, a better Long Beach guys, ladies, please go ahead and stand up thank, you for your support. Thank, you guys. Tonight. I also, want to thank our entire long beach team a vice, mayor thank you for your opening remarks and to our great councilmembers, our, school board members our Community College trustees including. Ginny Baxter who I not sure I heard the first time but Ginny thanks for being here and our. City leaders thank. You for loving Long Beach and making, it a great place to, live and to our veterans, who are here tonight our, firefighters. Our police officers. Thank, you for your service and let's give them a big round of applause. I also. Want to thank each and every city employee for. All they do to keep running our city every single day you make us proud and thank you for your hard work. Of. Course we couldn't do what we do without our city wide elected, officials I know they're here tonight again, thank you for, your service, and to everyone else that's here thank, you for supporting us and building, the best city we can and most, importantly, to. My family, who is here. Including. The future first dude of Long Beach I love. You guys and let's give them a round of applause thank you. And. Finally. I want to thank the hard-working team at the CVB and Convention, Center for, all of their hard work tonight and for, being recognized, as the best tourism team, in the, West let's give them all a round of applause guys thank you. Tonight. Believe it or not is my fourth state, of the city as your. Mayor we. Have made tremendous progress, in. These last three years and in. 2017, alone. We. Hit the lowest unemployment rate, in city, history we, had the lowest number of homicides, in city history it, was the best year on record for tourism and the, most cargo, volume ever at the Port of Long Beach. Our, city, is booming and it's, up to us to ensure that our strong economy, and growth, is working, for everyone we. Must not only measure our success by rising, incomes and property values but, by what we're doing to help the poor the.

Homeless And those, most vulnerable in our community. When. Voters pass measure a in 2016. They. Approved a three hundred and eighty million, dollar investment plan, in infrastructure. And public safety over. The next ten years now. We know that measure a is allowing, us to perform critical, infrastructure. Improvements, now, take a look at this map it's, actually, our five-year investment plan for streets and sidewalks, and I don't know about you but I love looking at this map just seeing so much infrastructure, getting done across, the community, and measure, a is also making critical, investments, in public safety it, has allowed us to expand, both, our police and fire service, across the city and thanks, to measure a and our, new police contract, with the Metro blue line we have already strengthened. Our already, stellar Department, so let's give them a round of applause and thank you. This. Includes, of course critical. New fire units across, the city in North, Long Beach and really throughout the entire city and as, we already know we, ended, 2017. With, the least amount of murders in our history. In. Addition. We, can announce officially tonight. That. Overall, crime in 2017. Decreased. By 7.9. Percent from. 2016. So, Long Beach is safer, today than it was a year ago. And. We maintain and, we maintain, a four point eight minute response time among. The best in America, now, we know that, policing, alone does not make community, safer we. Have to thank all of the incredible work done, in our local schools our, libraries. Our parts, and our, partners in the community. Organizations. Like central, chop building. Healthy communities and, the, Long Beach Community Action Partnership or organizing. Neighborhoods, throughout the city every. Single day in addition. Dozens. Of neighborhood watch groups and community, neighborhood associations, are on the frontlines of safety every day we. Are grateful, for the entire work happening in the community, and I'm looking forward to what's next in public safety let's, give them all a big round of applause. So. Tonight I want to announce the next project, of our innovation, team funded, by Bloomberg philanthropies the. Long beach justice lab over. The last year our innovation, team has been working with our Police Fire, Health, Department and City prosecutor's, office to, develop new approaches, and to help people there are frequent users, of these, departments, the. Innovation, team completed extensive, research and interviewed. More than 100, people who've, been in the justice system as well, as leading community experts. The. Research clearly shows that. We see the same people through, our public safety services and most, of them for, committing low-level, offenses like possessing, an open bottle of beer on the street now. In Long Beach and really in most of the country it's, a smaller percentage, of people who, are repeatedly, committing, the same crimes and also, consuming, a tremendous, amount of resources, we. Can continue, to arrest them indefinitely or we, can try to understand, and help these people break, these, dangerous cycles, now. Our plan includes. Launching, a new city team to, provide services, to frequent, justice system users and to create. A data sharing platform, where departments can share information, about services, being provided this.

Work Already complements. Programs we already have in place in the city like. The city prosecutors, path, initiative, a program, where young people facing, criminal prosecution, have, a choice, instead, to complete a job training program or an education, program think, you see the prosecutor for that that, incredible work. And. And. Another, important, initiative, a critical, initiative, from, the new Long Beach justice lab will be placing, a mental, health clinician, in our, city jail now. We. Currently have, no mental, health services, in our jail yet. We know it's a place where, we can help people access critical, and important, resources, so. Let's give the Long Beach Justice lab team and the, amazing, men and women of the police fire, and health departments a big, round of applause for their work and for this initiative. Now. On the stage during, my first state of the city I pledge, that we would launch a citywide campaign to. Fight climate change and make Long Beach a national, leader on sustainability. When. President, Trump called the United States out of the Paris agreement a global. Climate Accord between literally, almost all the nations of the world we. Pushed back and signed the agreement, ourselves, within. Weeks of the president's decision within. Weeks thank you of the president's decision. Within. Weeks we had over 300, US mayors across. The country, committing, to these important, environmental benchmarks, and earlier. This year mayor, Garcetti and I of Los Angeles announced. An ambitious plan that, sets the goal of a zero emissions, port complex by, 2035. Our harbor our harbor commissions and port staff responded. By approving a new cleaner action, plan which, sets targets, for our ports to meet zero emission, goals this. Plan will continue to, improve air quality and, ignite, a green revolution across. America's. Ports tonight. I want to thank our Harbor Commission our port. Area councilmembers, lina gonzalez and jeanine pierce and our, port team for their leadership on this critical issue let's give them a round of applause and thank you for your work. We. Know that fighting climate change must. Include building. A multi-modal, city long. Beach is once again recognized. As a top ten walkable, and bikable city our, bike share program has seen tremendous growth, with over, 20,000. Members and an expansion across the city and at CSULB, we. Are converting, our Long Beach transit, fleet to zero emission buses with 10 electric buses already. On our streets and LA. Metro is investing, over a billion. Dollars into the, blue line we, are synchronizing, traffic signals installing. New tracks and replacing. All the trains and services by 2020, we're. Also improving transportation. Options to and from our airport, now, the Long Beach Airport serves, over 3.5, million people annually, and was, named a top 10 airport in the country for, the third consecutive year in a row. And we, just we, just announced yesterday that, Hawaiian, Airlines, is coming to the Long Beach Airport providing. Direct flights to Honolulu. I. Love. Hawaii so I'm pretty excited about that now. We will we will continue, to make Long Beach a community, where you can walk bike. Take. The bus or even. Drive to. Get around our, Long Beach water department, launched a new blue restaurants, program to, recognize, those, that conserve water now, the program provides, resources to use water more efficiently, and save. Money and soon, all restaurants. Will be moving away from styrofoam. Products, after the City Council, banned polystyrene. To reduce waste and cleaner beaches. We, are also replacing, all city LED, lights across, the city to, new energy-efficient. Lights good for both the environment as well as our city budget now. We will continue to have one of the best park systems in the nation our parks. Department, is a top-25, park system and we're, creating new open spaces across, the city including wetland, restoration soccer. Fields, and dog, parks I'm, also proud of our Animal Care Team and the volunteers. Rescue. Groups and advocates. That, are working together to support our animal, friends. Now, since I've been mayor euthanasia. Rates have dropped every, single year and adoptions. Have increased, every single year and the credit, goes to our amazing animal, community, and local, volunteers many.

Of Whom are here tonight thank, you for your work. And. We. Know we know there's more work ahead which is why I asked, our city auditor Laura Doud to, perform an audit of our shelter operations tonight. I'm asking the City Council to take up the auditor's recommendations. Immediately, for discussion, and for implementation. And. Once. Again our beaches earn mostly, a and B grades from, he'll debate and later. Later. This year and this one is a biggie, later. This year the Army, Corps of Engineers will. Finally, unveil their preferred options, for, restoring, the San Pedro Bay including. Breakwater. Reconfiguration. Now, it's. Important, and we, will make sure that any project, we undertake to. Restore the ecosystem at, our beaches, also. Protects, every, single home and business, that we have along, the coast this is incredibly, important, so let's all of us keep working together to. Fight climate change and make Long Beach a global, green leader. We. Have also implemented, a culture of innovation at, every, department, at City Hall and across Long Beach we, are constantly working to improve how. We deliver, services to our residents now, last January, we launched the city's open data, portal data, elbe since. Then we've made nearly 100, data sets available online. To, connect people with data, and city resources our. Goal Long Beach app continues. To be one of the most effective, tools that we have to, report issues like illegally, dumped items or graffiti go. Long Beach has more than 15,000. Active users and nearly. 50,000. Were requests, were completed, in 2017, alone. And, earlier. This year we. Launched, our clean team initiative, to, ensure that every, neighborhood in Long Beach is clean, and blight free now, by usually go Long Beach data and heat, maps of where trash and dumping now occurs we, are proactively, deploying our clean teams to clean up alleys streets, and local, neighborhoods so, far our, clean, teams have collected, more than six hundred tons. Of litter and illegally. Dumped items and in, one year and you won't believe this because I didn't believe it in one. Year we, have collected, nearly. 16,000.

Mattresses. I know. And. Not, a statistic, that that, we're, proud of but we're proud of having picked them all up and so, let's, give our Public Works guys and, our ladies, in the department a big round of applause. We're, also innovating. In other ways as well the, city's gas utility, has installed more, than. 150,000. Smart meters and will complete all replacements, by the end of 2018. Now these meters allow the city to turn your gas on or off without, you having to be at home and recently. The City Council voted to move forward with an aggressive technology. Plan including. The development of a citywide fiber, master, plan also, as a social. Media guy I'm really proud of the 400,000. People engaging. On our social media platforms in fact. I'm going to send a tweet right now to, all my followers. Let's. Open the app up really quick. All. Right here we go. Hey. Guys. I'm. Doing, the State of the City. Going. Great so far I. Hope. You. All are enjoying it. Enjoying. It. Hashtag. S. O TC, l B. And. I. Hope, I hope, I got it right but either way I send it out about 20,000, of you guys just got it so. Yes. Thank you I loved, it I love to tweet some. Folks were tweet less but it's still it's. Still a fun thing so thank you and let's give a round of applause to our tech and innovation team, for all the work around innovation. That they do. Now. Long beach's focus on innovation will, attract new private investment, from local companies like, Virgin Galactic Swift. And laserfiche who, have all announced plans to expand in Long Beach and while I'm delighted that these companies, are choosing to grow I'm, especially more proud of efforts to bring more inclusive. Economic. Growth through. Our economic development blueprint. Release. Earlier, last year our, brew plant lays out our city's economic, vision for the next decade we. Are working to promote a local economy that includes and benefits, everyone. Every. Long Beach resident, no matter where they live or income. Level and that's, why I'm announcing tonight, that, I've asked, our Economic Development Commission. To. Develop and use citywide, Economic, Development Corporation. Focused. On bringing everyone. Into our economic success now. This type of nonprofit, organization. Already. Exists, in most major cities across the country and will be focused on supporting good jobs fair. Wages, ensuring. Inclusion, for all aspiring, entrepreneurs, and small, business, owners the EDC. Will also, work to, support our growing art community and amazing, artists, the, arts are critical, to not only building the culture of Long Beach but, also to power a local economy and I'm glad a report, that the 1% for the arts policy that, we proposed last year at the State of the City was, adopted, by the City Council earlier, this last year so thank you for doing that. Now. When I was first elected Long. Beach had a poverty, rate of about, 21% little. Over 21%, in my, first State of the City speech I said, that an order for Long Beach to be successful. All, of, our neighborhoods need to succeed, including. Central Long Beach where we still have pockets, of extreme, poverty I am. Pleased to report that, three, years later our citywide. Poverty, rate has dropped to, 18, point 8 percent. Now. We know we. Know that we have much more to do but, this is a huge step in the right direction I, want, to thank the City Council's, Economic Development Committee, chairperson. Stacey Mungo, and councilmember. Suzie price and Roberto u ranga for their leadership on economic development give, them a round of applause and thank you I. Also. Want to thank vice mayor Richardson, for his everyone in initiative, that was adopted by the council and worked on with a coalition, of community, organizations. Vice mayor thank you for your work on economic inclusion. And in. 2018, we, must address one, of the biggest, economic challenges. Facing, so, many of our local workers the, trucking crisis, at our ports. Port. Leadership, and industry. Experts all agree we. Cannot sustain the, current trucking, system we have in place we. Currently have a broken, system where. Trucks are not moving in and, out of our terminals efficiently, this. Slows the movement of goods and creates, major, truck congestion, at our, ports and many. Drivers are also working for poverty, wages, now. We have some great trucking companies at our ports they, do really really great work but. We also have others who misclassify. Their employees, and who need to pay their workers a living wage. Tonight. I am asking the City Council our. Board of Harbor commissioners and, our, partners, in the state legislature, and the county to, work on, creating a better system, that, supports, our workers and the trunky companies who are doing the right thing and as. We are doing the right thing and building, an economy for all including. Our truck drivers let's.

Adopt New policies that, grow the economy and, support our workforce strong. Local wages, health, care for all protection. From sexual assault and harassment across, all industries, and equal. Pay for equal work for women. And as. An educator I know that the best economic development, tool is access. To a quality education the. City of Long Beach is so lucky, to have such great educational. Partners now. Long Beach Unified has for years been one of the best urban school districts, anywhere. In the nation and was again named justice year as district, of the Year by education, dive Cal. State Long Beach received. More than, 100,000. Undergraduate. Applications this last year ranking. It as one of the most popular, universities, anywhere. In the country go, Beach. And. Long. Beach City College continues. To be one of the top community colleges for. Transfers, in California, now, individually these. Institutions, are great but. Working together as the Long Beach College promise we. Are creating, a mock model, a national. Model for partnerships. In education, later. This year the Long Beach College promise believe, it or not will celebrate its 10th anniversary, now. Since its creation the College, promise has helped thousands. Of students prepare. For and succeed. In college and beyond and all. The institutions, have worked, to, double, the amount of internships, being offered to Long Beach students and expand. Access to, early learning and preschool. Let's give them all a big round of applause. We. Also look forward to opening, the, new Educare, preschool, center in North Long Beach later this year and soon, the, mayor's fund for education will, launch a new initiative focused. On early literacy at child care centers all across Long, Beach, tonight. I also, want to thank our public, school teachers we. Have amazing, public, schools in Long Beach and, amazing. Teachers, we. Know that the backbone of our schools are our, teachers who, work hard love, our kids and care, about this community, can we give our public school teachers and all of our teachers a big, round of applause. We, need to honor their work every, single day as well, as our hard-working librarians. Our Community. College faculty and, our, university, faculty, let's give all of our faculty at our college, and university, a big, round of applause thank you. Tonight. I'm also incredibly proud of a special partnership that, we launched with an organization, called vision, to learn now. As you know I wear. Glasses but. Like many kids who grow up in low-income. Households, like I did I didn't. Always have access to glasses, or insurance. For eye exams. Many. Kids can't. Fully participate, in our classrooms, not. Because they can't learn but. Because they literally can't see. When. I heard about vision to learn I connected. Them to our Long Beach Unified, Superintendent.

Chris. Steinhauser, through. This partnership vision. To learn is providing, glasses, for, over, 8,000. Students in our, local schools who, need them to read and learn. Now. Now. One of those students who just. Received, her, pair of glasses, Samantha. Cuevas who's a student at Garfield elementary school, is here, tonight and I wanted to come on stage for a sec Samantha, come on up here how, you doing how. Are you good. To see you good to feel so, Samantha. I know you just got you just got your glasses what, do you what do you think about them. Can. You can you see better yeah, good. And what do you like about having new glasses. Okay. Okay good I know you're here with your with your mom tonight and some family. Samantha. That this. Is important for her to have these glasses I know her family appreciates, it we want to thank vision to learn for making, Samantha, and 8,000. Other students, have enough opportunity to have a pair of glasses let's give them a round of applause Thank. You Samantha you're all staff here so thank you. Could. We give some math another big round of applause. Again. Thank You division to learn for helping all of these students, were incredibly, proud of their. Work and of course of Samantha and her classmates, now. We, have many reasons to be proud of our city but we, also face real challenges in, 2018. And beyond, we. Must continue to be fiscally responsible and, meet, our future pension obligations, we. Must address the closure plans of Community, Hospital and I specially, want to thank councilmember super Nam for his leadership on this issue and we. Must take up and debate the proposed land use element, we. Also need to be thoughtful and have, deliberations. About the budget impacts of a recent lawsuit over utility. Fees now. I am confident, that the City Council can work together. To overcome all, of these issues ahead of us, but. We also face two other challenges, that are, so complex, and tragic, that it will take our entire state, to address, housing. And homelessness. California. Has, not built enough housing to. Sustain the growth of our state's population. We. Need housing of all, types but. Especially for. Seniors, on a fixed income, working. Families. College. Students, and those, experiencing. Homelessness. Now. I'm proud of the progress we're making him Long Beach in, 2017. The, City Council adopted, an aggressive plan to build and preserve more, affordable housing the. Plan includes policies, to encourage families to build granny flats inclusionary. Affordable, housing for new developments, and affordable. Housing preservation for. Seniors and of.

Course We have to recognize the incredible work of the, folks over at the villages at Cabrillo and Habitat. For Humanity, for their work to provide additional, affordable, housing let's give them a big round of applause. It's, them and others that are doing this incredible work now, our population, is still expected, to grow so. We need to continue building, quality, housing especially. Where we actually have land, opportunities, in our, downtown central. Long Beach and along the Metro blue line now the lack of supply is also, affecting, our students, at CSULB. And Long Beach City College I talk. To students all the time these. Students are telling me directly. That. Affordable. Housing is their biggest impediment to. Completing, their education our. Students, cannot find places to live and. As. You know it's. More difficult than ever to, rent or even purchase a home. Vacancy. Rates are low of course due to demand on the housing market and many. Students, seniors and families on fixed. Incomes can, barely afford to get by, now. We can do a lot more so. Thanks to a new initiative by, councilmembers Lena Gonzales a lawston. Andy. Andrews the, City Council, will begin looking, to adopt new policies that. Help folks stay in their homes more. Rental assistance, for working families and seniors and support. For renters to move into homeownership, now, I support, this effort I hope, you will too it's coming to the City Council soon and I want to thank the council members for introducing it let's, give them a big round of applause thank, you. This. Real, housing, shortage and crunch, on the market is contributing. To a statewide homelessness. Crisis, while. Long Beach has not seen the same increases. Perhaps, in other communities, have seen we. Have no question, experienced, homelessness in, our city and it's, a tragic, reality every, single day we. Know that many experiencing. Homelessness are suffering, from mental illness and need, health, care support, and housing. Now. I'm very hopeful that the work happening, in LA County will. Provide the resources, that we need to. House tens. Of thousands, of people, experiencing. Homelessness across the, region and the county and we. Also need to find a permanent, location for. A year-round. Homeless. Shelter in Long Beach. A. Shelter. In the winter is not enough we. Need to give people who are sleeping on our streets the opportunity, of a, roof over their heads and dignity, and I, want to think tonight our, incredible, partners, our homeless, service providers the. Folks that work with our homeless individuals, every single day give, them please a huge, round of applause for their work. And. Our. Work at the county, level our. Work at the county level would not be possible without the incredible support, and leadership. Of our LA County Supervisor Janice, on and. Janice. Janice. Is here tonight. Janice. Is here tonight and is fighting for Long Beach at, the County Board of Supervisors to, ensure that we have the resources to do this work so, Thank You Janice for your support. As as, I. Close tonight I want. To reaffirm that I will stand up for our values in, 2018. Regardless. Of what happens in Washington DC, we. Will never turn our backs on the LGBTQ. Community our. Hard-working, immigrants, our local Muslim community and our, low-income neighbors. Supporting. Supporting. All. Supporting. All of our residents is not. Only the right thing to do but. It will ensure that we remain a vibrant, and successful city 20.

And 30 years from now see, across the world and throughout, history. Societies. That are open and value. Inclusion. Have, always provided, more for their people and had, stronger, economies, a city. Of half a million one. Of America's largest must. Lead with a strong vision, a sense. Of justice and kindness. For all its people. I'm. Asking you tonight to, join me let's. Build a better city let's. Be kind to. All who live here and let's. Help those that need our, help the, most our. Future, is bright and our, best years are ahead of us thank. You good, night and go, Long Beach thank. You, thank. You thank. You thank. You thank. You guys. There goes. You.

2018-01-15 20:00

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